Not By Duty Are We Bound
by Dreaming of a Bright Sky
Summary: Draco Malfoy has saved Harry's life so many times that it's joked about (and even bet upon) by the Aurors Harry works with. When Harry finds out how and why, it forces him to see a reality that he'd been blinding himself too.
1. Chapter 1

author's note: There is some violence in this fic. The main reason that I posted it as a category of "M" is because it talks about child abuse and in a brief instance, the death of a child.

Harry was no longer surprised when Draco Malfoy suddenly comes to the rescue. As weird as that thought might have been five years ago, it was now his only chance of getting out of this alive. He clung to that hope as he shivered with cold, the stone wall behind him leeching all heat. Right now, he'd give all the gold in his vault to hear Malfoy snipe at him, so long as he could get out and to safety.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been here, but he knew that several days had gone by. By now he'd be missed, but nobody would know where to start looking. There was a batty witch who fire called the Aurors regularly with wild and improbable problems. The woman had alerted them earlier in the day to a non-existent globber-hum infestation . When she called only a few hours later with tales of lights in her barn, Harry didn't take it seriously. He'd stopped by after his shift and he hadn't told anybody where he was heading; he'd just wanted to make the old witch feel safe.

This time it was real. A group of death eaters had taken shelter in the barn. Harry hadn't been paying attention and he'd been taken off guard. Stunned, apparated to who knew where, and in chains; he was in serious trouble. The only reason that he wasn't dead was because several of the death eaters wanted more protracted revenge. It was a torture that they'd been happily dishing out.

Harry greyed in and out but was tugged to full awareness when he heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. A flash of a spell whizzed past his cell. Another guard went down. Within moments, Malfoy was standing in front of Harry's cell. "Seriously, Potter. I have better things to do than to keep rescuing you like some sort of damsel in distress." Harry's throat was raw from screaming, and he only managed a hoarse croak in response.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed in what Harry thought was a flash of concern, but it was quickly replaced with a neutral expression. The blond aristocrat switched his attention to the door. With a murmured word and a flick of his wand, the cell clicked open. "I'd think that even the Boy-Who-Lived would get tired of having to be a hero and placing himself in danger." Despite the sharp words, Malfoy's hands were gentle as he inspected the manacles holding Harry's wrists to the wall. He murmured another spell and Harry felt his legs buckle under the sudden weight. Malfoy quickly caught him.

Harry felt himself lowered to the ground, his shoulders in agony. His hands were numb, but he knew that pain would come as circulation returned to his arms. A vial was thrust in front of his face. "The first one is an anti-nausea potion. Drink it because several more potions are coming after. I need you on your feet to get out of here. Fall down later." Malfoy carefully tipped the liquid into Harry's mouth; followed soon after with a pain potion, pepper-up, and a nutritional potion. He waited until they kicked in and then hauled Harry to his feet.

Despite the slew of potions, Harry leaned heavily on the taller man. He was led through the house where he'd been held and he saw several bodies. Malfoy must have felt the question, because he spoke quietly as he moved them forward. "Stunned. Hopefully long enough for us to get out."

Harry thought back to the first time that Draco had pulled his ass out of a pinch, Harry had been too caught up in the aftermath to even thank the man properly. The next couple of times, the slippery bugger had apparated mid-question. Harry had managed to ask him why once, and the only response was the Malfoy smirk and a shrug. Eventually he no longer asked, but he knew that he owed Draco a life debt many times over.

Ron hated it. He was convinced this was some ploy, but this had been happening for years and Malfoy had never asked for anything. Not even when the Malfoy family went to trial. Many of the trials were delayed by a year or more when the whole of the wizarding world decided to overhaul the Wizengamot, Azkaban, and the Ministry. Harry had testified anyway. Afterwards, Narcissa had gracefully extended her thanks while her son had stood back and merely nodded at him.

"Potter! Stop daydreaming." Harry realized that he'd zoned out. They were at the front door, but Malfoy was propping him against the wall. "You need to stand on your own for a minute. I need to get these wards down so that you can get out of here."

Shaking with the strain, Harry managed to lock his knees and maintain a mostly upright position. Draco glanced at him for a second, but then began searching the wall. He found whatever he was looking for and began to chant a spell. A gleaming red snake design began to glow and Draco's spell began to disintegrate it. Finally with a puff, it dissipated.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, Harry felt them apparate. Only Malfoy's grip kept him from falling on his face. He saw Ron rushing towards them. His best friend took him from Malfoy and gave the blond a hard look. "Wards down?"

"It's safe for you to go in now."

Harry managed to get his voice to cooperate enough to rasp out a harsh whisper, "Five wizards, Ron."

The red head nodded. "Right." He waved down a fellow Auror and relayed the information. A sea of red robes descended on the house. "Come on, mate. Let's get you to the healers."

Harry caught Malfoy's eyes. His old nemesis nodded brusquely and apparated away.

Rom muttered under his breath, "He's still a bloody wanker." Ron shook his head, and Harry felt them apparate away.

The golden trio were enjoying a rare day out together. As adults with jobs, it was hard to coordinate days like this. Hermione had dragged both men off and refused to tell them where they were going. They tended to avoid wizarding places, because while they individually attracted attention; together they were a magnet for reporters and well-wishers. Today, she had chosen an amusement park in America.

Harry had never gone as a child and he was fascinated by the rides. Ron and Harry especially enjoyed the roller coasters. It felt a little bit like flying on a broom, and Harry tossed his head back and laughed as they dropped down a sleep slope.

They all ate themselves silly on attraction park food: cotton candy, fried dough, over priced chicken tenders, and way too much soda. Ron, having never encountered the fizzing beverage before, had initially been distrustful of the drink. Soon enough he was chugging it by the cup full. Hermione remarked, "I'm glad we paid for the collectors mugs with unlimited drinks!"

By the end of the day, Harry was relaxed but tired. When he'd left, Ron was practically buzzing from the sugar. Hermione rolled her eyes and apparated them both home. Laying in bed before sleep caught him, he could still almost feel the sun on his skin and the wind flying past him. He smiled. It had been a great day.

That feeling shattered when a sensation like ice cold water bathed him head to toe. There was an urgent feeling of danger. It drove him from his bed to check his house. Everything looked fine. He tried to pinpoint the sensation and couldn't. The feeling grew, and he began to worry about Ron and Hermione. He sent off his patronus with a message, "Is everything ok there?"

Moments later, Hermione fire called him. "Harry?"

He hurried into the living room. "Sorry Hermione. I didn't mean to wake you both. It's just…I got this weird feeling like somebody I cared about was in danger. I wanted to make sure that you're ok."

"We're fine. It's ok, Harry." Even through the fire, she looked pensive. "Have you considered Malfoy?"

"Bloody hell, Hermione. I know that you have this _theory_, but Harry'd know if he was linked to the bugger!" Ron shoved his head in next to his wife's. "Sorry, mate. You know how she gets."

Hermione elbowed him. "Harry, I haven't brought this up because there was no proof…but it might explain how Malfoy always knows when you are hurt or in danger. If there is some sort of link between you, he could be feeling it. It may be what you're feeling right now."

Harry shook his head. "I've never felt him in my head. It's not like we were ever friendly as kids, and we've never been close."

Hermione took a big breath but held it as Ron shook his head no. Harry watched the interplay, confusion and fear growing in his mind. "What?"

Ron deflated and admitted, "She's been researching this for a while; trying to explain how he always _knows_. If you two were soul mates…", his friend shuddered, "I hate to say this, but she may have a point."

Harry was stunned. "No. No way."

"Harry." Hermione's voice was soft, soothing. "Think about it. You were positively obsessed with Malfoy in school, and really, he returned it. He just couldn't leave you alone. You have always revolved around each other. You must have heard the muggle saying, "there's a fine line between love and hate." Harry, in the research; if soul mates can't connect in a positive way, they will in negative way. Anything for that connection, even if the people don't realize it themselves." She watched Harry keep shaking his head. "Look, it might not be a soul mate bond. Maybe it's something else. Just think about it, okay?"

Harry's voice shook, "I'm not bonded in any way to Draco Malfoy. Just forget it. Maybe I ate too much junk and rode too many rides. By morning, this will be forgotten. I'm going to bed."

Harry abruptly ended the fire call. He was shaken right down to his core. There was no way. None. He'd have known, right?

He lay awake that night and when morning came, he got up to get ready for work. The owl dropped off the Daily Prophet and when he unrolled it the head line read, "Draco Malfoy attacked in his home!" The moving picture showed Draco's body sprawled across the Manor foyer surrounded by blood. Aurors moved around him, but not once did Draco move.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry apparated to the entrance of St. Mungos. Inside, he strode to the desk. The woman looked up and asked pleasantly, "How may I help you,?"

"Hello. I'm looking for Mr. Draco Malfoy."

"Mr. Malfoy is not a patient here, sir."

"I was told that he was brought here."

"He was, sir. However, he was not admitted. We do not treat Death Eaters."

"He was acquitted." Harry's voice was flat.

"Nevertheless, he is a known Death eater. As such, St. Mungos has a firm policy. Mr. Malfoy was not admitted."

Harry leaned forward. "I was told that Draco Malfoy was critically injured and unconscious. If he was not admitted, where was he taken?"

The woman's eyes flitted back and forth, looking for somebody to back her up. At her continued silence, Harry's voice grew still and cold. "Where was he taken?"

The woman squeeked and tapped her wand on some an alarm. "I'm sure that I don't know, sir."

Harry waited. He knew procedure, and he knew that administration and any onsite Aurors had been notified when the receptionist hit the alarm. Within seconds, three aurors and an administrator had apparated to the desk. The woman looked smug as she spoke to the assembled people. "This man is threatening me. He's looking for Draco Malfoy, and I can only assume that he's a death eater himself!"

Harry laughed when her words caused the Aurors to glance at him, and then look at her in shock. The administrator was one that Harry was familiar with; Healer Monteac. The Healer looked at Harry and shrugged in apology. "Jules, this is Auror Potter."

Harry almost felt sorry for her as her face drained of color. "Au-Auror Po-Potter, Sir? Th-that can't be!"

"I assure you that it is. He is all too frequently a patient here. Are you not, Mr. Potter?"

Harry's smile was rueful. "According to Hermione and Ron, I'm a walking disaster. I'm not sure it's that bad!"

Auror Mickels laughed. "Potter, it's only by some bizarre luck that you aren't dead or maimed. You find the worst situations to fall into!"

One of the other Aurors, Gibbs, spoke up. "Malfoy saves your ass more than your partner does." He turned to the receptionist, who had gone grey. "Where is Malfoy? He's a decent bloke. Helped us Aurors out more than a time or two, and Potter here owes him!"

Jules looked at Healer Monteac. "I refused him admittance, Sir. We do not treat death eaters."

Healer Montaec pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jules, that policy was removed four years ago. You know this." The older man waved a hand at Harry. "His friend, Hermione Granger, was instrumental in pushing the fair treatment act into wizarding law. All wizards are to receive medical treatment regardless of blood status or affiliation."

Jules retorted heatedly. "Draco Malfoy is a Death eater. He does not deserve treatment. No death eater does." She glared at Harry. "Sir."

Healer Montaec sighed. "Jules, go get Lydia down here. Go wait in my office." He turned to Harry. "I'm very sorry about this, Auror Potter. Jules will be terminated, and I will find out where Mr. Malfoy was sent. Please allow me a few minutes."

****

Harry paced impatiently. More time had gone by than he was comfortable with. Aurors Mickels, Gibbs, and Smith had gone back to whatever they'd been doing. At some point, Hermione and Ron had arrived and were waiting with him. "Harry, mate, stop pacing. You're making me sick watching you."

"It's been too long, Ron. Something is very wrong. I know it."

Hermione was writing on a piece of parchment furiously. "We have to find out how often this has been happening despite the fair treatment laws." As she tapped the quill to her chin, she thought out loud. "I'm writing up a list of contacts here at St Mungos. I'll need to get a hold of them. Quietly." She pinned Harry with a fierce look. "We also need to talk to others like Malfoy, Harry. We need to find out what's really happening."

Ron groaned. "Oh, Merlin. He we go. Hermione's got another cause."

Hermione hit him. Hard. "This is about people's lives, Ron. If they do this to Malfoy, who is associated with Harry, how are they treating others?"

Any response he would have made was cut off by Healer Montaec rushing at them. "Auror Potter!" He was out of breath. "We need you right away. Right away!"

Harry grabbed the Healer's robes as he spun to rush back into the hospital. "Malfoy?! Where is Malfoy?"

"Auror Potter. We need to hurry. We have Mr. Malfoy, but he is dying! Let's discuss this later, and save his life **now**! Yes?" Harry nodded and followed.

***

Harry heard the chaos before they got to it. Voices were shouting; calling for potions and tinctures. Other voices were shouting spells. Healer Montaec shoved his way into the room, forcibly dragging Harry along with him. "Move!" His normally cheerful voice was demanding and loud. "Move, NOW!"

A path immediately cleared and the shouting stopped. Harry zeroed in on the pale figure laying on the bed. Malfoy looked dead. His vision blurred.. Montaec must have sensed it because he spun and shook Harry's shoulder's sharply. "You will help Mr. Malfoy because you are the only one who can save his life. You are an auror, are you not? You faced down Voldemort, yes? Act like it!"

The Healer's sharp words cut through Harry's haze. He pushed back the buzzing in his head, squared his shoulders, and nodded. When Montaec deemed him ready, he grabbed Harry's hand and placed in on Malfoy's cold arm. "Because you are soul mates, you can bolster his fading magic and life energy."

Harry's eyes snapped to the Healer's in shock. Montaec cursed. "You did not know?" Harry could only shake his head. Ron and Hermione had only brought up the idea last night. He never thought it could be true.

The healer asked, "You want him to live?"

"Yes."

"Then this must be done. There is nothing else. Not now." Healer Montaec held his wand ready, but waited. Another Healer started to speak, but Montaec's sharp gesture cut him off. "Decide."

Harry knew that he was being shoved into a decision and that he had no idea of the ramifications. Hermione was forever on his case for exactly that, trying to get him to _think_ before he acted. In his gut…in his heart…he knew that he had to act. Regardless of the consequences, he could not left Malfoy die. The very thought caused something in him to seize. "Do it."


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't so bad, really. It left him feeling a little tired. Well, a lot tired. Ron wasn't helping. "You're soul mates, Harry. Merlin! I mean, Hermione said…but Draco Malfoy? He's your soul mate. Bloody hell." He'd been going on like that ever since Draco had been moved to a private room.

Luckily, for Harry's state of mind, Hermione turned on her husband. "Really, Ron? I've been telling you for months!"

"Harry, mate…did you **have** to save him? Now you're stuck with him!"

Hermione cut Ron off. "Did you really expect him to let his soul mate die? Besides, Harry owes Draco Malfoy a life debt. He'd be bound by duty, if nothing else!"

Harry could tell that the arguing was waking Malfoy up. Figuring that it might be best if he didn't wake to Ron, he tried to get his friend to go to work. Hermione glanced at Draco and back at Harry. "Good luck, Harry. I'll come by tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mione." She waved over her shoulder as she dragged Ron away.

As soon as she was out of sight, he looked over at Malfoy. Silver eyes met green, and Harry felt it as an almost physical jolt. He reached over slowly, just barely touching the other man's wrist. "Malfoy…" He cleared his throat. "I… made a choice without your consent. You were dying and…"

"Eloquent as ever, Potter." Malfoy's voice was sarcastic. "You widened the bond. I get it." His dry throat caught, and he reached for the water. Harry propped him up, and Malfoy took a sip.

"Malfoy…"

"Give me a minute." He leaned against Harry quietly.

The young Auror felt lost. He had no idea how to approach what had happened. He didn't dislike Malfoy. He just didn't know how to feel about…this.

"I need to owl my mother before she reads this in the papers."

Since Narcissa was already on her way, it was too late for that. "She's arriving from France in the morning. An auror is meeting her, for her protection."

Malfoy sighed and closed his eyes. "Biddy."

A house elf popped up and bowed vigorously. "Master Malfoy, Sir! Biddy is so glad you is being all right!"

"Thank you." Biddy's eyes teared up at being thanked. "My mother is arriving home tomorrow morning. Make sure that nothing remains of my…incident…at the manor. I don't want to distress Mother."

"Yes! Yes, of course, Master! Biddy will do it right away!" With a pop the little elf was gone.

"Granger is going to harass my house elves, isn't she?"

Harry chuckled. "She may explain house elf rights to them a few times, but as long as they're treated well, she'll be ok."

Malfoy lowered himself back down to the bed with a grimace. "My father?"

"Extra security has been added. Just in case."

Lucius did not escape justice this time around, although his sentence had been greatly reduced. The entire Malfoy family had turned from Voldemort in the end. Lucius had spent a good deal of their family fortune rebuilding Hogwarts and was trying to redeem the Malfoy name. As a consequence, he was only serving four years in Azkaban and would get out in another six months. However, Lucius was no longer the head of the Malfoy family, and he was never to be allowed in a position of power again.

Azkaban was no longer a cesspit. Hermione had lobbied long and hard. In the end, she told the wizarding world that muggles treated their people better. She literally shamed everybody into better conditions at the prison. No dementors roamed the halls, and the prisoners were kept clean and fed. Lower risk prisoners were even allowed owls and visitors.

Malfoy shifted uncomfortably on the bed. Harry could see how tired he was. "I'll…uh…be over here." He gestured to the other bed.

"Potter."

"Yeah?"

The aristocratic young man looked like he was going to speak, but then decided against it. He shook his head and closed his eyes. Harry knew that he wasn't really asleep, but allowed him that pretense. Eventually Malfoy's breathing evened out and he settled into real sleep. Harry sat there for a long time watching him. The only coherent thought running through his head was, "What am I supposed to do now?"

****

Pale morning light was filtering through the windows when Narcissa Malfoy arrived. "Mr. Potter." Her voice was soft and low, pitched to not wake up her son. She approached her son's bed and watched him for several long moments. She turned, and stepped towards Harry. "May I cast a privacy spell?"

With Harry's agreement, she cast a small bubble around the two of them. An auror popped his head in when the spell went up, and Harry waved at him. Reassured, Narcissa's assigned Auror stepped back outside the room.

With a grace that Harry almost envied, Mrs. Malfoy sat on the edge of his bed. "If you would be so kind, I would like the full story from you. I know what I read in the paper, but the Aurors have told me very little."

Harry shuffled his thoughts into order. "I don't have any details of the attack. I know that the investigators believe that it was somebody familiar with your family. They suspect that it's retaliation…" Harry paused.

"For my son having secured your release from our former allies?" Her clear eyes gazed at him. "I am aware of his actions. And why."

"Right." Harry cleared his throat. "Again, I'm not involved in the investigation. I read about the attack in the daily prophet and found out that Malfoy…your son…had been brought here to St. Mungos."

"Where he was being treated promptly by the healers?" There was an edge to her voice that indicated she knew something of what had happened.

"No. I asked where he was, but I wasn't getting answers. Healer Montaec looked into it and found out that when the Auror brought your son in, he was in a hurry to get home. He told the woman at admitting that Malfoy was to be treated, and left without following though." Harry shook his head. "Believe me, he's lost his job over this, but he honestly expected Ms. Marshall to admit your son. He didn't realize that she was going to push his gurney into the alley and leave him there."

Narcissa was controlling her emotions well, but he could see the tension in her. The fear. "Don't worry, Mrs. Malfoy. Healer Montaec is very good. He personally saw to your son. He says that Malfoy will be fine."

"How badly was he injured, Mr. Potter?" She laid her hand on his.

"Your son was hit by several curses. The one causing the most damage was a cutting curse." Harry took a deep breath. "Malfoy's magic attempted to keep him alive. Due to the prolonged time between injury and treatment, he was physically and magically drained. The only way to buy enough time to save him was to use our, um, bond. Healer Montaec said that in the normal progression of things, if your son and I accepted the bond, it would develop on its own. In this case, he had to magically open it to allow my magic to keep your son alive."

Narcissa absorbed this information and switched gears, throwing Harry off balance. "Ms. Marshall. Has she been taken into custody?"

"Yes. St. Mungos terminated her immediately, but when they determined what she had done, she was arrested."

"Very well."

With a wave, she dropped the privacy spell. "Mr. Potter, considering all that has transpired, you may want to consider calling my son by his given name." She gave him a small smile and got up.


	4. Chapter 4

"Has my mother arrived safely?"

Harry was startled out of his thoughts. He hadn't realized that Malfoy was even awake.

"Your mom was here earlier. Said she'd be back."

Malfoy dropped his head back against the pillow. "Macnair will go after her, now that's she's back in the country. She was safer in France."

"Macnair?" Harry sat up straight. "Have you told anybody about this?"

"When exactly would that have been? When I was unconscious and bleeding at the Manor? In the five minutes I was awake last night?"

Harry ran back through the past 36 hours. "What about when you alerted the Aurors to the attack?"

"I didn't alert the Aurors." Malfoy looked away. "I thought you had."

Questions started piling in Harry's mind. "Who did, then?" The other man only shrugged. "Has anyone asked you about what happened yet?"

"My front door was blasted in, and I got a stunner to the face before I could reach my wand. The last thing I remember is bleeding out on the cold tile while he taunted me. I woke up long enough last night to find out that my mother was no longer in France, and again about ten minutes ago. You are the only person I have seen, so no. I have not told anybody what happened yet!"

Harry couldn't leave Malfoy alone, and there was no floo in the room. He cast his patronus with a message for Ron. The stag pawed the floor, casting sparks, and dove through the wall. When he turned, Malfoy was watching wide eyed. Harry asked,"What? You've seen my patronus before."

"You really have no clue, do you?" Malfoy rolled his eyes and muttered something about the ignorance of some people. "Let me make this simple so that you can understand. Macnair wounded me. He either thought I was dead, or got scared off before I was. I'm guessing the latter, because he's too good to do anything else. I was sent to St. Mungos. Am I right so far?"

Harry nodded and Malfoy continued. "So, I must have been close to death. Somebody realized that we're soul mates and used that bond to save me. I can feel it humming between us, Potter. Can't you?"

When Harry thought about it, he felt something. It wasn't like the link to Voldemort; painful, evil, and slimy. This felt like the tingle of air rushing across your skin as you fly after the snitch, but it also felt comforting and steady. He realized that he'd felt it before, only this was…more.

Malfoy continued. "They opened the link up magically, you poured your magic and power down the connection, and I lived. Thank you for that, by the way. Even if you are a moron." Harry just rolled his eyes. He'd learned not to take it too seriously. "You just cast a corporeal patronus a day after that. Most people couldn't cast sparks, and you're casting a patronus!"

The young Auror shrugged. He wasn't tired after a night's sleep, so he wasn't sure what the big deal was. He was, however, realizing that Draco didn't know what had happened when he arrived at St. Mungos. "Look, you need to know something." He waved his hand. "Not about me or my patronus, but about something that happened when you got to St. Mungos."

Malfoy was still. "Go on."

"The Auror assigned to bring you here left you with the woman at the front desk. She refused to admit you and she pushed you out into the alley. Where she left you."

Looking at Malfoy now was like looking back in time. His face was smooth and cold, eyes a bitter silver. It was easy to forget how much the younger Malfoy had changed until his mask fell back into place. Harry hated seeing it and he reached out, touching the young man's arm. "Both have been fired, and Ms. Marshall is under arrest."

They heard a throat clear in the doorway and Harry looked up with a smile. "Ron!"

The tall man moved into the room dressed in his Auror robes. He punched Harry lightly in the shoulder. "Hey Harry." He nodded at the other man in the room. "Malfoy."

"Weasley."

"You should know that Harry went barmy when he couldn't find you. Sent the whole of St. Mungos into a flurry."

"Ignore him. He's exaggerating." When Ron shook his head, Harry reiterated, "Really. I asked where you were and Healer Montaec went to look for you."

"Healer Montaec is semi-retired, Harry. He says that he works in administration so that he doesn't get bored in his old age. Normally he'd get a lackey for a search like that. He personally went looking for Malfoy." He turned to Draco. "The longer it took to find you, the more Harry paced and the worse the building shook."

"It did not!"

"Yeah, Mate. It did. Hermione told me to leave you alone. She thought that if we tried to calm you down it would make things worse. I tried anyway." He murmured to Malfoy, " Not that it worked. By the time they found you, half the hospital was involved in the search so that he didn't shake the building down!"

"I did not shake the building!"

Ron's face was completely serious as he faced his friend. "Harry, I'm telling you that you did."

Malfoy pointed out, "He just cast a corporeal patronus."

"He does that all the time."

"After pouring enough magic into somebody to bring them back from the brink of death?"

Ron froze. "Bloody hell!"

Harry did not want to talk about this. _At all_. He pulled Ron down next to him on the bed. "Did you let the investigators know that it was Macnair?"

"Yeah. They want at Malfoy to question him, but Montaec is refusing. The Healer is saying that they can talk to Malfoy when he decides that they can, and not a moment sooner. Montaec has assigned himself as Malfoy's healer. Nobody else is allowed to treat him. Or talk to him without permission."

"Who alerted the Aurors to the attack?"

Ron's face turned red. "After our firecall, Hermione kept at me. She insisted that I get somebody to check out Malfoy's place. I got Finnegan to swing by and he noticed the front door blasted open. I didn't know that he'd actually found something until I got word this morning. I'd have let you know if I had, Harry. I swear."

"I know, Ron." Harry rubbed his face. "I'm glad that Hermione didn't listen to me. Otherwise…" He glanced sideways at Malfoy.

"She's the one who told Montaec you two are soul mates."

Harry's head snapped up. "Hey. What is the deal with this soul mate thing, anyway? The way muggles view it, it's this epic romance or something!"

Ron and Malfoy had such similar looks of incredulous shock that Harry almost started laughing. Malfoy glared at him, then waved a hand at Ron. "You're his friend. You explain it to him."

Ron was still staring at Harry. "I forget, sometimes, that you don't know a lot of this stuff. They don't teach it at Hogwarts, and you didn't grow up with it." He fiddled with his cuff. "Hermione would be better at explaining this, Harry. Really."

Malfoy snapped. "Fine. I'll explain. Being soul mates doesn't automatically mean that you'll meet, or like each other if you do. In fact, some of the greatest enemies in history have been soul mates."

"Dumbledore and Grindelwald."

"Yes, though it's rumored that Dumbledore had been in love with Grindelwald."

"He killed him anyway," Ron pointed out.

"Back to the point. It means that your souls are highly compatible magically. If the two soul mates meet, connect, and get on; they can create a connection that strengthens them both. It almost never happens, let me point out. Societal pressures, meeting at the wrong point of your lives, and life experience can all influence whether or not two soul mates actually fulfill their potential or not. Often they end up as enemies or bitter rivals."

"Like us."

Malfoy's eyes were piercing before he looked away. "Yes."

"It reminds me a bit of magnets."At their blank look, Harry explains. "Magnets are something the muggles discovered and use. They emit a magnetic field that attracts metal. But magnets are kind of funny with other magnets. The fields will sometimes interact to push the other magnet away. Even little tiny magnets are impossible to shove together. But, if you flip the magnet, they attract each other and create an even stronger magnetic field. So, soul mates are sort of like magnets."

"Huh. I'll have to have 'Mione show me these magnets, sometime. They sound interesting."

Something clicked in Harry's brain and pieces started rapidly slotting into place. "Malfoy, you've known since at least seventh year, and your mother knew. That's why she lied to Voldemort in the forest."

"It's also why Macnair will kill her, Potter."

"Why now? Why after five years?"

"He began to taunt me after the first stunner. Said that I'd disrupted his plans when I rescued you. Somebody in that group was crucial to what he had going on." Malfoy looked far older than twenty three. "Whatever he's planning, one of them knows it. Things may have changed when I rescued Potter, but I'd wager he's still going to find a way to fulfill his original goal."

"Because I was directly responsible for fouling up whatever he was plotting, I made my family a target. He said that he was going to wipe out the "traitorous Malfoy's", as he called us. He would have killed me last, but he said it was justice; that my parents turned from Voldemort for me, so he was going to make sure that they endured my loss before he came for them."

Harry turned to his best friend. "We need to get Narcissa Malfoy somewhere safe. Immediately."

"Grimauld place?"

" Yeah."

"I'll talk to Kingsley. Let him know. I'll see if we can get some old Order members into a rotation, since they are already the secret keepers."

"Sounds good."

Ron stood up and was almost to the door when Harry called to him. "Ron, thanks!"

"Sure thing, Harry." He glanced at Malfoy, and back at his friend. "You're my best mate. So you come with extras now. I'll learn to deal with it."

# # #

Ron left, and the normal hum drum of hospitals began. Harry was familiar with it: You lay there looking at sterile, white walls. Healers, nurses, or medi-wizards came to poke and prod at you just as you were falling asleep or finally comfortable; only to chastise you for lack of sleep, or proclaim you not ready to leave yet because of the pain.

Morning progressed slowly into afternoon, and Harry drowsed in the late afternoon warmth. He could hear parchment unrolling as Malfoy read, and he contemplated whether he ought to be working on something himself. He picked up the sound of familiar footsteps. He was pretty sure that it was Hermione, and she was moving fast. Harry instinctively grabbed his wand as he snapped to full awareness.

"Harry! Malfoy!" She took in the sight of them, and assured herself that they were fine. She positioned herself just behind the door; able to view the hallway and the occupants of the room, wand at ready. "One of the aurors grabbed me as I was coming in to visit. They've found an attendant and a Healer stunned on the first floor. Their robes and badges are missing."

Malfoy swung his legs over the bed, feet just touching the floor. "Where are my clothes and wand?"

Harry opened a cupboard. "They usually keep stuff like that in here." He pulled out the small pile and grimaced. The clothes were stiff with blood, and the shirt was a tattered mess. "These are a loss, but here's your wand."

"I can't bloody well go charging around in a hospital robe!"

"Unless you know a spell to fix these, I really don't think you want to wear them."

Harry tossed the bundle onto the bed. Malfoy's look of distaste was very evident, and he looked ready to complain.

Hermione quickly transfigured Malfoy's hospital garb into a set of serviceable robes. "There! Now be quiet!"

Faint sounds of a battle began filtering their way. Harry tapped Hermione on the shoulder. "Stay here. I have to see if we can get this floor cleared."

He listened, trying to determine a safe direction to send people. He started going room to room, alerting patients to head towards the Janus Thickey Ward. They had the best wards and security, and it was the safest option right now. He rounded up some healers and they began to get people moving faster.

Knowing that things were in motion, he darted back to Malfoy's room. The fighting was closer and he needed to get the other man out of there. Reaching into a pocket of his robes, he pulled out his invisibility cloak. "If you're careful, both of you will fit under here. Get to the Janus Thickey Ward."

"Harry, what are you planning?"

"I'm just going to go check on the other aurors."

Malfoy grabbed his arm. "Don't get yourself killed."

"I'd say that I haven't yet, but that wouldn't be precisely true. So, you'll just have to accept an, "I'll try not to." Now go!"

He watched the pair of them disappear, and he could hear scuffling footsteps moving away. Satisfied, he cautiously moved in the direction of the fighting. He couldn't hear it anymore, but it didn't mean there was no danger. As he rounded the corner, he could hear voices in a corridor just ahead. At the edge, he peered around. Two Aurors stood over a bound man wearing hospital staff robes. Further down, several more Aurors were attending to patients, visitors, and staff who had gotten caught in the fight.

Harry stepped out. "Oye! What's the situation?"

"Oh, hey, Potter. We've got the guys. Other one stole healer's robes and we've got him detained. This one made it up to the fourth floor. He was pretty determined. They started throwing curses down on the creatures floor. All clear now."

"I sent people over to the Janus Ward. I'll let them know it's safe."

"Right."

As he made his way back, something tingled along his awareness. Something didn't feel quite right. Why make a show of stealing robes, but then do a head on attack?

"Crap!" He swore out loud and began sprinting. Harry slowed as he neared the long term damage ward. People were milling about. He hung back, out of sight, and carefully observed. Nothing caught his eye until he spotted one "patient" off to the side. At first glance he seemed to be slightly hunched over, as if in pain. Then Harry spotted a flash of wand being hidden from sight by the hospital tunic. He realized that the man was casting a finite incantatem and other spells, as if to dispel a disillusionment charm.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry's voice rang out, and he saw people turned frightened faces in his direction. Unfortunately, the man dove and managed to avoid the spell. People began to flee in all directions, and in the chaos, Harry had lost sight of him.

Then Hermione's voice cried, "Impedimenta!" A body fell and lay still on the floor. Harry wasted no time in binding the man, and snatching away the wand from his frozen fingers.

"Great job, Hermione!" He looked around and witnessed a shimmer as the invisibility cloak was removed.

Hermione smiled while Malfoy grimly clutched his wand. Pounding feet heralded the arrival of back up, and Harry let them take over the scene.

Things moved fast after that . Malfoy was cleared to be discharged, but had give an official statement about both attacks before he could leave. Harry's boss was requesting he come in, and Harry stared at Malfoy as he gave his testimony. Hermione's arm snaked around his shoulder. "It's ok, Harry. I'll stick with him until we get to Grimauld Place. He's safe."

Trusting in his friend, he headed off the DMLE. Hermione was the smartest witch he knew, and Malfoy had proven to be entirely capable of handling things. Between the two of them, Harry trusted them to stay safe.


	5. Chapter 5

Officially, Harry was now on duty as protection for Draco. Ron was also on guard duty; specifically to keep Narcissa Malfoy safe. Several Aurors who had been in the Order were on a rotating schedule at Grimauld place. Lucius Malfoy was being moved to high security for his own protection. Azkaban was on high alert, and they were double and triple checking everybody who came in or out.

Despite this, Harry was not allowed to be part of the investigation of the attack or of Macnair. "You're too close to this, Harry." Kingsly was sympathetic but firm. "I think half the wizarding world knows that you're soul mates by now. It makes you a target, too."

"Sir, I'm also an Auror. I'm used to dealing with danger."

"Draco Malfoy has proven that he will go to great lengths to keep you from harm. All they need to get at Malfoy is to get to you. You'll make that easier for them if you're investigating this. Let another team handle this, Harry. It's better for everybody that way."

As Harry left Kingsly's office, his co-workers busted on him a bit. "You destroyed the betting pool, mate! Only one person bet on you saving Malfoy's arse for a change!"

Curious, he asked, "Who was that?"

"Neville!"

The man in question looked up and gave Harry a smile. Harry laughed. "You and Luna, mate. You always have seen things others miss."

"More luck than anything else, Harry."

Harry knew better, but he wasn't going to press it. Instead he just patted Neville on the back and congratulated him on his winnings.

# # #

Ron led the Malfoy's into the Black family home. As she stepped in, a smile crossed her face. "Mr. Potter, I do believe that I've never seen the place look quite so lovely!" He breathed a sigh of relief. Harry was acutely aware that it had been Narcissa's home as a child, and he'd been nervous that she'd be horrified at the changes he'd made.

"Thank you. After Ginny and I broke up, I was a loss as to what do with my spare time. I figured that repairing the house was as good as anything else."

"Well, Mr. Potter, if the rest looks as nice, it's a job well done."

Ron had a couple of bags. "Hermione is coming too. She's just finishing up some things. Our usual room?"

"It's all set, Ron. I put fresh sheets on it, and aired it out."

"Thanks!" The redhead bounded up the stairs, leaving everybody else behind.

"Do you not have a house elf, Mr. Potter? Has Kreacher passed away?"

"Oh, no. He's fine. He lives at Hogwarts now. He's quite happy there. It's just me here, so I don't really need a house elf anyway."

"Will it be a problem if we have our house elves bring our luggage?"

"That's fine. In fact, it will be much safer if you don't go to the manor right now. Have your house elves get what you need, or let me know. Ron or I can escort you to retrieve anything you need." Harry gestured to the stairs. "Let me show you where your room is."

Mrs. Malfoy claimed her room on the third floor to be quite nice, and followed Harry and her son to the fourth floor. After the renovations, Harry had taken Sirius' old room. He'd carefully packed up his Godfather's posters and decorations, and they lay in a special archival box in his vault. "Malfoy, you can have this room. It used to be Regulus Black's room."

Narcissa delicately cleared her throat behind them. When Harry turned in question, she primly stated, "Both of us are Malfoys. To which do you refer?"

"Oh…um..Draco, Ma'am. Your room is downstairs, where I showed you."

"Of course. Thank you for clearing that up." She smiled fondly at Harry, as if he'd done something wonderful. "I'd like to see what you've done with the kitchen."

"Mother, Potter...,"When Narcissa cleared her thought again, he said, "Mother, _Harry_, I think that I'm going to lie down for a while. I'll see you both for dinner."

"Good. I'll make sure that Biddy has your potion list."

"Oh, Mrs. Malfoy. That reminds me. We do have a well stocked potions lab here. We may have what Mal…Draco needs."

"Really? Do you brew potions, Mr. Potter?"

Draco snorted. "He's awful at potions, Mother. You should have seen him in school."

"I'm afraid that he's right, Mrs. Malfoy. I'm pants at brewing. We had a lab here because this was headquarters for the Order during the war. We were in constant need of potions at the time, and it seemed prudent to set it up."

"I'd like to see that, as well. I'm sure that Draco would enjoy having a look later."

"Sure."

Harry escorted her to the potions lab, which she merely deemed "adequate." She seemed to enjoy the changes Harry had made to the kitchen. Charlie Weasley had helped him. Instead of a single, long, oppressive room; Harry had a spacious dining room and a separate kitchen. Enchanted windows showed the scenery from outside, despite the entire floor being underground. Kreacher's old room was now a walk in pantry. It was much too big for Harry's simple needs, but he had to admit that it was much nicer.

She insisted that she call Biddy to come and make dinner for them all. She encouraged Harry to go upstairs and relax for a while. He knocked on Ron's door on the way up, letting him know when dinner would be served. When he hit his landing, he was a little surprised to see Draco's door open. The man, himself, was asleep on top of the covers. He shook his head a little, and went into his own room. Without thinking, he left his door open as well.

# #

"What happened between you and the littlest Weasley?"

Harry looked up from the letter that he'd been writing to see Malfoy leaning in his doorway. He contemplated the other man as he thought about how to respond. The blond seemed genuinely curious, so Harry decided to explain. "It was a lot of things, really. Mostly it was me." He met Malfoy's eyes. "Look, I didn't have the most normal childhood. By the time the war ended, I was so broken that Ginny and I never had a chance."

Malfoy's eyes searched his, a small frown pulling down his mouth. "Broken."

He knew what Draco was asking with that statement, but he wasn't ready to go into that with him. Not now. "I'd never had friends until Hogwarts. I didn't understand the difference between loving somebody, and being in love. I loved Ginny like a sister. Like family. I just didn't understand that then."

Harry waved a hand and indicated the house around them. "When I ripped the house apart and fixed it up, it was almost like…like I was doing it inside of myself as well. I had this time where I wasn't being haunted by a psychopath, nothing was expected of me, and I was accomplishing something tangible with my own efforts. I could shut my mind off and just be myself. Not the unwanted nephew, not the Boy-Who-Lived, not the son of James and Lily Potter, not a boyfriend, or a student, or anything else…just Harry."

Draco stood there contemplating Harry. The silence felt thick. Harry felt like his skin was overly sensitive. He had no idea why he'd told Malfoy all of that. Before it got too oppressive, Hermione yelled about dinner. Relieved, Harry stood up quickly. "Let's go eat!"

All the way down, Harry felt Malfoy's eyes on him.

# # #

"Harry, the word I'm getting is very disturbing."

"What do you mean, Hermione?"

"Look, officially there has been no prejudice against death eaters at St. Mungos. Realistically, there's a surprisingly high death rate. Not just Death Eaters, Harry. Anybody from a family considered "dark", even if they didn't side with Voldemort during either war."

Rom mumbled around a mouth full of food. "I thought you were looking into how many people had been turned away."

"That's where I started, but the answers I was getting led me somewhere a lot more sinister. I won't be able to get any hard statistics on how many have been turned away. There simply aren't records kept if the person showed up but received no care. The best we can get is anecdotal evidence; words of mouth and personal experience. Nobody in power is going to accept that with any weight, since they'll figure the witness isn't credible due to their background."

"Surely, Ms. Granger-Weasley, Draco's case attracted enough attention to lend credence to such claims."

"Yes. As will testifying under veritaserum. However, we have to have enough other evidence before anybody will even take this seriously. Given the reactions that I'm already receiving; people either don't want to believe that this is happening, or condone it."

"That is very troubling." Narcissa offered, "Perhaps I can talk to some families that I'm still in contact with. I'll see what I can find out."

"That would be brilliant! Thank you!"

Malfoy spoke, a sharp edge to his voice. "Tracy Davis went to St. Mungos for a minor curse and died while there. As did Daphne Greengrass. Daphne went in with a broken arm, and died that day." He hit his hand on the table. "They said that she had a reaction to one of the herbs in the skele-grow potion. Claimed that they had no idea she was allergic! Are you telling me that their deaths could have been deliberate?"

Narcissa laid a hand on his arm, and he stilled. Hermione offered up the only information she had, "I don't know. I'll look into it now that I know. It's still possible that something just went horribly wrong, and their deaths weren't on purpose. What I do know is that some doctors and staff have noticed unusual deaths. One even got me into records. I only had time for a moderately sized sample, but death rates among those with the dark mark were about 15% higher than normal. In known dark families, it was roughly 8% higher. I haven't had time to extrapolate for other factors, but those numbers are terribly high."

Draco shoved back his chair. "If you'll excuse me? I don't seem to be very hungry."

"I'm sorry for Draco's behavior. Daphne was a beautiful young woman, Draco was quite fond of her." Mrs. Malfoy's face held a hint of sadness as she looked to where her son had exited.

Hermione gasped, her fork dropping out of nerveless fingers. "Oh! I had no idea. I'm so sorry!"

Narcissa gave a small nod to Hermione. "I would take it as a great personal favor if you could look into her death."

"I intend to." Hermione was determined. She was going to get to the bottom of what was going on at St Mungos.


	6. Chapter 6

warning: mentioning of a child's death

# #

Harry put together a tray with food and Draco's potions. The bedroom door was open, but he knocked anyway. The other man ignored Harry's presence.

"Malfoy?" No response. "Draco?" Harry stepped further into the room.

Malfoy sighed, his shoulder's slumping. "I was going to marry her." He turned and looked at Harry. "I accepted that I was never going to have you, and she was a good match: pureblooded, wealthy, beautiful, and she could provide me with an heir. Most of all, she didn't care that I was constantly dropping everything to come to your rescue. That's what drove Pansy away, in the end. She couldn't stand that she would always be second to you. Daphne understood. She accepted it."

He leaned his face against the window. "I was off saving you the day she died. It was when you found those poachers killing hippogriffs and stealing their babies. I'd had dinner with her the night before. She'd agreed to marry me…and then I get back from playing the bloody hero to find out that she was dead."

He spun away from the window. "I'd blame you, but I can't. But you can damn well honor her by not throwing yourself into mortal peril every time I turn around!" His hands were clenched into tight fists at his side. "You are not allowed to die!"

"I can't make that promise."

Draco began to shake. Harry reached out to him but got his hand slapped away. "I remember the battle at Hogwarts, when the Dark Lord said you were dead. You were my enemy. You'd rebuffed every offer of friendship that I had ever made. You'd even tried to kill me once. Yet seeing your body in that oaf's arms, hearing those words…" Draco wrapped his arms around himself. "When you jumped up, I knew that I'd do anything to never feel that way again. I tossed you my wand as I ran right past the Dark Lord. I knew that I'd just consigned myself to death if you lost. My parents, too. And the worst thing is that it didn't matter. All that mattered, in that moment, is that you were alive."

His head snapped up, eyes fierce. "I don't want your pity. I'm not expecting anything. All I'm asking is that you don't get yourself killed. Do not make me feel that way again! Dumbledore killed Grindelwald to save the world, but if it were you and I? I couldn't do it. I'm selfish, Harry. I couldn't stand how that felt, and I don't know how the old man lived with that emptiness his whole life."

Harry's thoughts spun. This was…wow.

He didn't know what to think or how to feel, but he did know that he couldn't leave Draco standing there alone after that kind of revelation. Very carefully he closed the distance between them, watching for any sign that he was making the wrong move. Malfoy watched him, and Harry couldn't tell what he was thinking at all.

He reached out, taking Draco's fists into his hands, gently uncurling them. "When you were dying, Healer Montaec gave me a choice. I could save you, but doing so would irrevocably bind us together, possibly hating each other for the rest of our lives. Or, I could take the safe route, and let you die. There was never really a choice." He rubbed his thumbs over the back of Draco's hands. "I can't say that I feel how you do. I don't know how I feel, to be honest. I'm not… I'm complete rubbish at this kind of thing."

Draco snorted derisively, but then dropped his forehead to Harry's. They stood there for long moments and it felt oddly…nice.

Draco stood straight, squeezed Harry's hands once, and then let go. "What did you bring me? I'm hungry."

Harry watched bemused as the other man started picking through his tray. He wasn't sure that he'd ever understand.

# # #

The next morning Harry came down to find Hermione in the parlor, surrounded by papers. Boxes, scrolls, loose stacks...everywhere. Her face was pale, dark circles under her eyes, but her expression was fierce. She looked up at him, and her eyes were both sad and furious.

"She was murdered Harry."

He didn't even have to ask who. He did want to know where all of this had come from, and how she'd gotten it. She'd gone back to St. Mungos after dinner. She had carefully watched the intricate charm used to unlock the door when she'd been let in the first time. Armed with Harry's cloak, which she hadn't returned yet, she'd snuck in. She'd duplicated all the records since the war. All of them. Then she'd managed to reduce them, put them in her purse, and smuggle them out. Her first goal? Find out if Daphne Greengrass had been murdered.

"In every file, there's a section for allergies. In Dapne's it was blank, but as I looked through other files, I realized that there was an extra line of space. Here, look!"

Hermione handed him two pages. One was Daphne's, and one was hers. When he compared them, he realized there was a little bit of extra space under the allergy category on Daphne's. You wouldn't notice it on a casual inspection. Hermione tapped the page with her wand, "Charta Revelio!" Instantly, the words "Boiled lamb's quarters: severe" showed up.

"Boiled lamb's quarter is an ingredient in Skele-gro. When this allergy is known, the potion can be made with dried parsley instead. It just isn't used as often because it throws off the ratio of Chinese chomping cabbage to puffer fish." She tapped the parchment again and the words disappeared. "Allergies are rated on severity. If the allergy is low and the need is high, like if it's the only thing that will save somebody's life, they'll use it. In this case, severe is the highest category. It means that it's either fatal or will cause such a reaction that it should never be used at all."

Harry's heart was heavy. He knew that this would hurt Draco. It also made him wonder how many people had been killed and why. "Did you get a chance to look into Tracy Davis?"

"Of course." Hermione sniffed as if he's denigrated her research skills. "Tracy went in with what they thought was a curse of the bogies. It was actually mucus adnauseam tria. Her system has already been compromised by poor nutrition; her family was bankrupted by the war, and hadn't much money. She was so sick by the time that she went in that there was no way to save her."

"How far have you gotten into this, 'Mione?"

"Enough to have narrowed it down to a handful of staff. Just using the revealing spell has uncovered a lot: issuing a fatal dose of a pain potion, giving something that a patient was allergic to, not giving a potion that was vital or switching it out with something less effective, and even outright changing the patient's diagnosis. Some people have died while the staff has struggled to understand why, all the while they'd been treating them for the wrong thing. It was always something with similar enough symptoms, but the causes and their treatments were vastly different."

Harry had to sit down. He may have fought on a different side of the war, but he couldn't imagine doing this. He braced himself when Hermione said, "It gets worse, Harry."

She handed him several folders. On top was a Regina Nott. "Related to Theodore Nott?"

"A cousin."

He started reading. Judging by her listed birthday, she'd be about six years old. She had been admitted once for a bit of accidental magic that had singed her hair. Later she was admitted due to a side along apparition mishap that had splinched her foot. Two years ago, she'd been admitted for dragon pox and died." He looked at Hermione. He didn't understand what he was supposed to be seeing.

"The cure is administered based on body weight. According to the records, before they were altered, she was receiving four times the dose that she needed. One of the ingredients is toxic in too high of a dose. She died of an overdose, not dragon pox."

He thought that he was going to be sick. "How could this happen? How did nobody catch that these people were getting the wrong dosages?"

"Once the treatment is placed in the patients records, potions are dispensed to attendants magically. The only time that isn't true is during an emergency when the healer calls for a potion directly. Otherwise, it gets put in the chart and the potion gets dispensed at the authorized dosage, at the appropriate time. The nurse has no idea of the strength or amount, only that this is what was prescribed."

"Ok. So I get why they put the wrong dosage on the charts then, but why put in the wrong treatments? It meant that whoever has to go back in and change it. It's riskier, isn't it?"

"Patient records aren't updated by hand, Harry. Every potion and treatment is automatically updated on the patient's charts. It is risky, but this person seems to have gotten away with it for years."

Harry flipped through more charts. Each one was a patient where the records had been falsified. All of them were dead. Hermione was still clutching a folder. She was usually ridiculously careful with books and papers, but she holding on so tightly that it was bending the edges of the folder.

"What's that one?"

Hermione carefully tried to unwrinkle the edges. As she started to hand it over, she hesitated. Harry watched her, trepidation growing in him. There was no way this was good. She took a deep breath, looked him in the eye, and deposited the folder in is waiting hand.

On top was a name. His. "What the hell?!"

"The changes in your records don't start until after you testified for the Malfoys." She tapped the file and cast the revealing spell. Harry watched, stunned, as various lines were erased or altered as he watched. "It was nothing outright, Harry. Maybe they were afraid it would cause too much attention if you died while in their care, so it was more subtle . This here…" She pointed to a treatment that he'd received after he'd been tortured. "This potion is used for nerve damage. But, if it's used when a patient has had crucio cast on them, it can cause a condition that is very similar to ALS in muggles. It may seem like the patient is recovering, but down the line it actually causes the slow degeneration of the nervous system, eventually leading to death."

"Harry is going to die?" Harry spun around to see Malfoy and Ron by the stairs. Ron looked wrecked, but Draco was so pale that he was grey. He clung to the bannister, and with a loud thump he half collapsed to sit on the bottom steps.


	7. Chapter 7

Warning: mentions of canon child abuse (Harry)

###

Hermione was in the background explaining that it wasn't a guarantee that Harry would be afflicted. He wasn't really listening though. He was more focused on Malfoy. Malfoy, whose legs had gone out from under him, and now looked like he was going to topple over sideways. Harry sat next to him and looped his arm around his shoulders.

Narcissa, who had been awoken by the commotion, hurried down the stairs. "Draco!"

She managed to get around Harry and knelt in front of her son. She placed her hand on his face. "I think we need a healer, Mr. Potter. Draco would ordinarily still have been in the hospital. He's obviously ill."

Draco's hand snapped out with surprising quickness and grabbed his mother's hand. "Yes. We need a healer. He needs to look at Harry!"

Confusion was writ on her face. Harry explained, "Draco and Ron walked in on a conversation that I was having with Hermione. Somebody at St. Mungos gave me a nerve regeneration potion that should not be taken if you've been crucio'd. Hermione says that it causes people to get sick and die."

Hermione was still trying to explain. "Harry may not develop that condition. They stopped using that potion in crucio cases because it causes nerve degeneration in some cases. Not all."

Draco asked, "How often?"

"Approximately 3 out of 10."

Draco slumped further in Harry's side. "You need a healer."

Narcissa stood up. "We are calling a healer, and they can look at both of you!" Her robes snapped behind her as she strode off to the floo.

Hermione looked regretful. "I hate to do this, but I have to head into work. I have enough evidence to present this as a case. Harry, your Healer needs to document anything he finds. You're part of this case now."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Great."

His friend hit him softly. "I know how much you love being in the middle of things," she joked. Her face lost its humor. "Just let me know what they find? Right away, Harry. I mean it!"

"I will."

"Okay." She hugged him and headed off.

Ron sighed and said, "Guess that I better find out what Mrs. Malfoy is up to. I have to clear anybody who comes here."

That left Draco and Harry alone, sitting at the bottom of the steps. Harry nudged the other man. "You all right?"

"Fine."

"Uh-huh."

Harry left it alone. They just sat there together as everybody else worked feverishly to handle things. Right now, that's all either one of them could do.

# # #

Hermione was back in an hour. "It's an official case. I've got permission to **officially** study all the records. We're expanding it to include anybody who had helped or sympathized with dark families. We're not just looking at deaths, we're going to go over every record. Harry's case has shown us that they may also be thinking more long term."

Harry and Draco were still sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Hermione had soon dragged a box over and was digging through records while talking to them. "Here. You two, go through these files and cast the reveal spell on them. If anything changes, set it aside."

"'Mione! You're back!" Ron leaned down and gave her a hug. "Good timing. We've got a list of healers that meet the approval of Mrs. Malfoy and are cleared by Shacklebolt. Give it a look, and let me know if any of those are on your suspect list."

"Who have you got?"

"Healers Grant, Vlott, or Wilhelm."

"Grant and Wilhelm work at St. Mungos. Do they even practice privately?"

"Grant is part time, and spends the rest in private practice. Evidently, he likes having a public face, but also the money that comes with a select, private clientele. Or so I'm told."

"Wilhelm is a friend of the Malfoys and is willing to come."

"Vlott?"

"I'm told that she's very expensive, but has always remained neutral during the wars."

"Hmm. Well, none of the three are on my suspect list. I'd be suspicious of anybody from St. Mungos right now, but if Wilhelm is a friend, he's probably ok."

"So Vlott and Wilhelm."

Narcissa had entered during the conversation. "Vlott is an excellent physician if we want to rule out anybody at all connected with St. Mungos. Hans will understand the concern for safety."

"Just how expensive is Healer Vlott?"

"She is very exclusive Mr. Potter. However, I assure you that we have sufficient funds to cover the expense."

"I'm sure that you do. For me, it might be best if we get somebody more moderately priced."

"Potter, we are getting the best. If Vlott is the best," Draco looked up at his mother and continued after her nod, "Then Vlott it is."

"Not all of us are made of money, Malfoy."

"I happen to know that you are the sole beneficiary of both the Potter estate and the Black estate. The Blacks, from which I descend, are an old and wealthy family. You cannot be hurting for galleons. Besides, I'm paying, so shut up."

"Draco." Narcissa's voice held a note of rebuke, but Draco remained unmoved. She frowned a bit at him, but spoke to Harry. "We will be happy to cover your portion, Mr. Potter. Think of it as repayment for graciously allowing us to stay in your home."

He knew he was beat. "Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy. That's very generous of you."

# #

Healer Vlott was nothing like he was expecting. She was quite tall and burlesque. He distantly wondered if there was any giant in her family. She was friendly and professional, and her calm demeanor settled his nerves.

She checked on Draco first and declared him mostly fit. "However, I would caution that you need to take care to rest, Mr. Malfoy. Your body has had a set of extreme stressors. You've made a nice recovery, but you still need to take it easy for a while."

Then the moment that Harry had been dreading was upon him, and she stood facing him with her wand. "Have you ever had a full scan, Mr. Potter?"

"Well, I've been in St. Mungos quite a bit. I would assume so."

"Hold on." Hermione dug through the pile and pulled out Harry's folder. Tapping it, she cast the reveal spell. "Here. This is Harry's unedited file from the hospital."

Healer Vlott raised her eyebrows a bit. "It is most unusual to have a patient's medical file. Quite handy!"

As she scanned the file, Harry watched her. Mostly she nodded to herself, but occasionally she'd frown. Once she looked up briefly and met his eyes, shook her head, and went back to reading. He wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Quite an adventurer, are you not? Well. I do not see where you have had a full scan." She tapped her wand to her chin. "You were raised muggle, right?"

"Yes."

"Great. This will make an explanation easier. Most of the time, doctors will use an x-ray. It sees a lot. Sometimes, though, they use an MRI or CT scan. They see much more. So the scans you've gotten are more like x-rays. They've given the Healer's all the information they need to know. But now we need something that can see better. If the potion will cause damage, it is hidden. Waiting. I need to be able to see more clearly to find it. Understand?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Ok then. This may feel a bit uncomfortable, but it should not truly hurt."

She waved her wand in a complex series of swoops and whorls. Harry began to feel like his bones were vibrating. It started at his feet and by the time it reached his head, it felt like it was rattling his teeth."

She swept her hand down, ending the spell. Harry stared up at her, waiting. Her eyes were weighing him. "Would you like to do this in private, Mr. Potter?"

Oh, yeah. Like that isn't ominous. He shook his head. "Everybody here will know sooner or later anyway. May as well do it at once."

"To start, very good news. It does not appear that you are at risk for the degenerative damage that was feared. I'm seeing no trace of it. I would like to scan you again in a few months to be sure, but I'm reasonably certain that you are free and clear in that regard."

A chorus of relieved sighs filled the room. Harry wasn't relieved though. He could feel the other shoe about to drop. The way she'd worded that…

"In that regard?" Hermione had heard it too.

"I ask you again, Mr. Potter. Do you want to take this in private?"

Harry was truly concerned now. He had no idea what this could be about, or what was going on. "Draco would probably insist on coming with me, Hermione would pester it out of me afterwards, and Ron probably has an extendable ear on him somewhere. You may as well tell me, Healer Vrott."

"Very well. Due to the extensive abuse and starvation that you endured as a child…"

"Abuse? What abuse!?"

"Harry! I knew that the Dursley's didn't treat you well, but **starvation**?"

He closed his eyes. He'd had no inkling that the scan could reveal that. He wanted to crawl into a hole. He listened to Ron's angry voice, demanding to know why Harry hadn't told him. Hermione's voice was anguished, and Malfoy's voice was as sharp as a knife. "Your muggle family abused you? Starved you?"

Without even opening his eyes, Harry nodded.

"And yet you protect muggles?"

Harry stood up, knocking his chair back. "Yes!" he hissed. "I do. Not all muggles are like that, and I've seen as much evil done by wizards as I have from muggles!" He turned to Healer Vott. "I've changed my mind. I would like to do this in private. With privacy spells."

They retreated to his room and Harry layered on the spells so thickly that Healer Vott's eyebrows jumped to her hairline. Afterwards, Harry refused to tell anybody what was said.


	8. Chapter 8

Warning: mentions of canon child abuse (Harry)

12 Grimauld place was silent. Harry opened his door and listened. He knew it was cowardice to be hiding from people in his own home, but the last few days had been a bloody nightmare.

Ron had matured with age, but he still had a tendency to react first and calm down later. He hadn't hit the calm stage yet.

Hermione had tried to be sympathetic. Then she bought a bunch of books on abuse and was acting like she understood. He didn't know how to explain that getting a subject intellectually doesn't mean that you really understand.

Her parents hadn't spoken words to wound her. Hermione hadn't learned to dread the sound of doors slamming. To Harry, it meant that somebody was angry, and he would end up hurting that night. There was still a part of him that seized in fear at that sound…he didn't think that he'd ever hear it and not be afraid.

She understood hunger. They all had after the horcrux hunt. But still, she'd never had food withheld out of spite. She'd never had to cook dinner and watch others eat as hunger gnawed at your own belly, until you were weak with it.

It made this low thrum of anger itch under his skin. He knew it wasn't her fault, and it's why he'd never wanted to talk about it.

Draco had alternately raged and been utterly cold to him. Harry was actively avoiding the man because he never knew which it would be, and frankly? He didn't like either.

All of them had wanted to know what Healer Vott had discovered. He wasn't in the mood to discuss it with any of them.

It was a relief when an owl arrived from the Minister with a message:

Harry, meet me at my office. One hour. ~Kingsley

Harry needed to grab breakfast and slipped downstairs. Biddy had adjusted to their erratic eating patterns, and always seemed to leave out a selection of items under a stasis charm. He'd just sat down when Malfoy appeared in the door. The blond sat a little ways down the table. Harry noticed that Draco's hand whitened on his fork when he pulled a small potion out of his pocket. He waited to be yelled at or questioned, but nothing came. Harry downed it, grimaced at the taste, and grabbed for some juice to wash away the flavor. They ate in silence.

When he was done, he got up and placed his dishes in the sink. It wasn't until he was almost out the door that he realized that he'd left the bottle on the table. When he looked back, Draco was examining it. He'd taken a cautious sniff and then ran a finger along the rim. Harry realized that Draco was trying to figure out what the potion was, so that he could figure out what was wrong with Harry. A frisson of guilt ran though him. He contemplated talking to him, but he was distracted by somebody coming through the floo.

When he got there, Neville and three other Auror's had come through. "Hey Harry!"

"Neville!" He smiled at his friend. "What's with all of this?"

"I'm not sure. The minister said to send people here, so we sent people here."

"Alright. Well, I guess I'll have to find out when I go see him." He patted him on the shoulder and directed them all to the kitchen. "There's plenty of food if you blokes want breakfast!" He smirked a little when two of them saluted and went off.

"Ok. See you Neville."

"See you later, Harry."

# #

"Harry, have a seat." He waited until the young Auror was comfortable before starting. "Good morning. I wanted you in here because we've got updates on both cases."

"Both, sir?"

"Harry, I'm aware of your involvement on the St. Mungos case being spear headed by Ms. Weasley-Granger."

"Right."

"Hermione's brilliant. She's done an amazing job with this case. We're making an arrest today."

"Who was it, sir?" He'd hate to think that it was anybody that he knew.

"Healer Buscan."

Harry only had a brief recollection of the man. He'd seen him a few times, but didn't recall him being his personal healer any of the times he'd been at St. Mungos. He frowned, "Are you sure that's the right man? He was never my healer."

"It's him, all right. He's directly under the Healer-In-Charge on the fourth floor. The Healer-In-charge has already been cleared. He was on vacation when several of these incidents occurred. Healer Buscan was the only other one with the authorization to alter the diagnoses and treatment of patients."

"Do we have any idea of why?"

Kingsley sighed. "He lost his family to death eaters. His father was a wizard and his mother was a muggle. Death eaters came and razed their house to the ground; his parents and little brother were still inside."

"Merlin."

Kingley took a moment. He let Harry wrap his head around that before moving on. "I have to ask you this question. Is there anything of a medical nature that you need to tell me?"

"Sir?"

"I know you've been cleared regarding the nerve regeneration potion, but a reliable source has indicated that there may be another serious issue. Healer Vott did not include a mention of this on her report for the case and she refused my inquiries on the subject."

"With all due respect, it's none of your business. Nor is it Ron and Hermione's unless I choose to tell them. You're just going to have to trust me that it does not affect my duties as an Auror, nor will it."

"All right. I do." He flipped a file over to Harry. "We've got an idea of what Macnair was after, and where he may be at."

Harry sat forward and looked over the file. The men that had taken him had been hired by Macnair for a heist at Gringotts. One was a bloke who claimed to know a back way in to Gringotts through an underground passage. It was where they brought in the magical creatures to guard the vaults, since they wouldn't want to bring something like a dragon through the upper levels. Harry knew firsthand how destructive that could be. They also had a cursebreaker to help get through the security on the vaults.

Harry couldn't help whistling. "If this is for real, this is big."

"It's real, Harry. They're planning it for next week. We need to get Macnair before he does this. We know he's staying somewhere in Knockturn Alley. We just need to flush him out."

Harry thought about the only thing they could use to possibly entice Macnair out of hiding. "Malfoy."

"Yes, indirectly."

"All right. What's your plan?"

"You're still doing those periodic dark artifacts checks, so we want to use that. Be visible. Go store to store. We're going to use you as bait and hope that he takes it."

"I'm all for it, sir, but I need back up."

"We're already working people into place."

"You're talking about doing this today. Now. Why?"

"Macnair's men hit Azkaban last night. Despite our checks, a man looking like a guard got in. One of them got to high security, but they set off alarms. We took him out, but not before our group of bank robbers portkeyed out. He got to Lucius Malfoy, Harry."

Harry sat back with a thump. "Dead?"

"No. Injured, but nothing he won't recover from."

Harry was relieved. He truly disliked the man, and still had no idea how this was going to work out since, well…he was soul mated to the man's son. But Draco loved his father, and he didn't want to see him hurt.

Kingsley explained, "We've moved him. Obviously he's not safe at Azkaban. We've got a security breach. They know our security measures. It means they'll find out where Malfoy is. I can't guarantee his safety."

"You've got another problem, sir. Prisoners breaking out of Azkaban, a planned heist of Gringotts...people are going to panic when this hits the press. We've got to get Macnair."

"We've kept this quiet so far, but I know it's just a matter of time."

Harry stood. "Then let's go get him, sir."


	9. Chapter 9

Ron and Harry walked out of the book shop. Ron hadn't spoken yet, and Harry wasn't sure whether to be relieved or to wait for the explosion. When Ron stopped, he braced himself.

"Look, Harry…I just wish that you'd trusted me enough to tell me."

"It's not about trust, okay? When you're a kid, you learn not to talk about it because it gets you in a lot of trouble. As you get older, eventually you don't want to talk about it. It was just one more thing that made me different from everybody else."

"If you ever want to talk, you know you can, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Ron nodded and that was it. They headed into the next shop.

Hours passed and nothing had happened. Then Harry caught a glimpse of somebody behind them. But then, the person stopped as something caught their eye on a display. Just a shopper then, he thought. Only, the guy was around the corner after the next store. Harry deliberately delayed them in the cloak shop. If the man was really shopping, he should have moved along by the time they'd come out.

At first glance, he was gone as they stepped out. But…no. There he was inside the store across the street. He looked like he was shopping, but he was definitely angled to watch the street. Harry discreetly tapped his leg three times; their signal that a watcher had been spotted.

They entered the next store and Ron made sure to watch the reflection in the glass. He spoke quietly, "He's moving out into the street. Stay sharp."

Nothing happened while doing their inspection, but they stayed alert. The guy seemed to be gone as they moved to the next store, but rather than reassure them, it made both of them more tense. They went to shop after shop, and nothing happened.

The final store, a little hole in the wall at the furthest corner of Knockturn alley, was a potions shop. The proprietor looked up, and then rolled his eyes as he saw that they were Aurors. "We're an honest business, we are! Ye ought to be leavin' us alone!"

"I'm sorry to impose, sir. We'll do our inspection quickly and be off."

With a frown and a rude gesture, the man began to ignore them. They cast detection spells as they moved from front to back. There was a store room in the back. Ron called out, "We're checking the back."  
"Fah! Whatever."

The back room was row upon row of potions, vials, powders, plants, and glass bottles. Each shelf packed so thick that you couldn't see the next clearly. They nodded at each other and began the grid to scan for dark magic. About halfway through, Harry heard a shout up front. As they spun to check it out, the door to the back room slammed shut. Somebody shouted Nox and the lights went out, leaving them in darkness.

A streak of light flashed and as it was fading, he saw Ron tumble backwards. Harry dropped to a crawl, and headed towards his friend. Another shout and a spell flashed above his head, raining debris onto his back. Everything was soon just a series of lights punctuating the darkness.

Harry was relieved when he heard Ron rejoin the battle. He could hear him somewhere ahead and he kept moving. His hand bumped something warm. "Ron?"

"Guess again, Potter." With a murmured lumos, the man's face was lit and Harry could see several other wants pointed at him. He recognized that face from the last time he'd been held captive. That wasn't a comfortable thought. Off to the side he saw another area light up as Ron was captured.

Both Aurors were bound, silenced, and disillusioned. Their captors shuffled them out the back door and down a dingy alley. They didn't spot anybody along the way, and ended up being herded to a set of stairs. They were led inside an apartment was above a shop, and the building looked like it was ready to fall down.

Harry took in their surroundings. They were in the main room. Another door was on the left. He assumed it was a bedroom. Ahead, he could see a door leading out to a balcony. There were the seven men who had captured them, and four more in the room they'd just entered. So far he hadn't seen Macnair.

One of his kidnappers knocked on the bedroom door. "Boss, we got 'im."

He stood back as the door opened. Macnair grinned. "Mr. Potter. How nice to see you."

"Wish I could say the same, Macnair."

"Oh, don't worry. I only need you until Draco comes for you. Then you won't have to see me anymore. Better yet, tell me where he's hiding. I'll make your stay even shorter. So what is it, exactly, that manages to pull him to you?"

Macnair approached. "Is it danger? Or is it being injured?" He cast crucio. As Harry screamed, Ron bowled into Macnair. He kicked out at another of their captors. Unfortunately, he was one man against many, and a stunner took him down. Macnair spit on him. "Damn blood traitor! Lacero!"

Harry could only watch from where he lay on the floor as Ron's bloody body was dragged out.

# # #

Macnair was getting impatient as his men hadn't returned. The man snapped his fingers at two of his men. "Go see where those fools went to. It doesn't take this long to dispose of a corpse!"

When more time passed, he became visibly agitated. He shoved his wand under Harry's chin. "Where are my men?"

"I've no idea. Actually, I have no idea how a lackey like you even managed to get this many people to follow him."

"You'd be surprised what people will do for gold."

Harry chuckled. "Oh, you mean that heist you planned? Did your men tell you that they squealed? We know all about it, Macnair. Gringotts has been warned. How long will these thugs stay with you now?"

Macnair backhanded Harry, sending his glasses flying. "Why isn't Malfoy here yet?"

"He won't show. Malfoy is somewhere safe, where you will never reach him!"

"We'll see about that. Crucio!"

# # #

Harry came back to awareness slowly. Macnair was in the bedroom, but he could hear him arguing with somebody. "We just need Malfoy, and we won't need to break in. We can just imperio him. He has so many galleons we'll still be rich!"

"This has turned into a mess, Macnair! I didn't sign on to kill Aurors. I'm not a death eater. Now I'll be a wanted man!"

"Once Potter's dead, there's nobody to tell tales; but if you don't have the stomach for this, then go!"

They kept arguing, and Harry tried to unobtrusively see how many men were left in the room with him. He jolted when he felt something cut the ropes binding his wrists. Then his wand and glasses were pressed into his hands. Dread filled his stomach when he felt cloth covered fingers gently brush his battered face. Draco!

Harry heard footsteps come up the stairs. "Check it!" somebody ordered. Harry turned his head a little, and he watched as the man opened the door and took a stunner. Fabric slid and revealed Draco and Hermione, already casting spells.

Harry managed to get his glasses on and stumble to his feet. Malfoy pulled him out of the way of a curse and his brain kicked into gear. As he came back up, he took out a man trying to come in from the balcony.

Later, Hermione would duplicate the memory to show Ron. Harry and Malfoy stood back to back; dodging and casting so flawlessly in sync that it looked like a dance. Harry cast protego as a spell raced toward Draco, and it spattered harmlessly away. He immediately spun right under Malfoy's casting arm to stun a man cursing them from the side. He was no sooner done casting than he felt Draco grab him and twist them both out of the way of a death curse. Both flowed out of the dodge, wands coming up in unison.

Right about then, the rest of the men from the balcony managed to get inside. Harry began deflecting and blocking the spells as Draco took the offensive. Man after man dropped in their onslaught.

Somewhere during this, Harry realized that several Aurors had also made their way in and were engaged with Macnair. Hermione was dueling with a man trying to come in from the bedroom. Harry cast expelliarmus and within a moment Draco had him under a full body bind.

The Aurors converged on Macnair . and with a final spell he was down. Harry stood, panting, looking around for the next target. Only Malfoy's hand on his arm brought him out of his battle haze. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and realized he was getting even fuzzier. Still confused, the world went black, and all he registered was a solid warmth keeping him from falling.


	10. Chapter 10

Warning: mention of the long term effects of child abuse

###

Harry woke and his first thought was, This is happening far too often. Then with surprise, he realized that he was in his bed. When the events leading up to his latest round with unconsciousness broke over him, alarm shot through him. Ron!

Harry sat bolt upright and immediately regretted it. With a moan he dropped back down and that was even worse. He closed his eyes tightly until the dizziness went away, but it did nothing for his headache.

"How in Merlin's balls did I end up bonded with such an idiot?"

Harry cautiously turned his head in the direction of the voice. "Draco?"

The blond shot him a withering glare. "Do you have another soul mate?"

"Is Ron alive?"

"Yes, sadly, Weasley lives. He's alive and just as loud as normal. With a few applications of dittany, you'll never know he'd been wounded. "

Harry felt the panic start to recede. He fumbled for his glasses, and checked Draco for visible signs of injury. "You ok?"

"I'm bloody well better off than you are!"

"OW. Stop shouting. Please."

The slytherin got up out of his chair and grabbed one of the vials sitting on Harry's nightstand. "Here. Sit up slowly this time."

Draco helped get him situated in a mostly upright position and stuffed a bunch of pillows behind him. Harry drank down the potion and felt the headache ease.

Silence settled for a few moments and then Draco asked, "Headache better?"

"Much better. Thanks."

Malfoy nodded. Harry watched several emotions flash behind the other man's eyes. They seemed to settle and Draco's fists clenched. He opened his mouth and a torrent of words came rushing out at Harry, "You and your bloody plan, Potter. Purposely getting captured? Only you lot would be so stupid! Was Weasely getting slashed to bits part of your plan? Or the fact that the whole place was warded. They needed time to take down everything carefully so that he wouldn't find out and decide to kill you! Time that he spent beating and cursing you! "

Harry defended himself, "We had to be sure that we had Macnair, himself, before moving in. We knew he might not come personally for a grab."

"I don't care!" Malfoy left the room, went to his, and slammed the door. It was a very short time later that Hermione came in. She had to have heard the whole thing.

"Hey Harry."

"Hey. You ok?"

"I'm fine. Ron really is fine, too. A few slashes to his arm and chest. Even now it's mostly healed and just looks a bit red. It'll fade…"

"With dittany. Yeah."

She smiled at him gently and sat next to him. "They got to him right away. The aurors were waiting as soon as he crossed the wards. They captured the men and got Ron to St. Mungos. It looked a lot worse than it was."

"How did you get involved? I thought you were off arresting Healer Buscan."

"Draco found me at the ministry as I was preparing to go. He explained that a group of Aurors had come and then you'd left. Then Ron got a ministry owl and left. He knew something big was up. He slipped away from Neville and found me. I knew that nothing I said or did would stop him when the soul bond kicked in. He knew you were in danger, Harry. The safest and smartest thing to do was stay with him, and make sure that he didn't get caught. The St. Mungos team went without me. It's not like I had to be there."

"You did all the work. I'm sorry that you didn't get to be part of the take down."

"I'm not. The important thing was stopping Buscan. That still happened, but I needed to be able to help Malfoy, Ron, and you."

"How long had you been inside?" Harry was wincing, thinking about whether she'd had to witness her husband get cursed.

"When we got there, Ron was already out and being tended to. We didn't know if you were all right, or what the situation inside was. Ron wasn't coherent enough to tell us. We slipped in when the second set of guys came down. Then it was a matter of waiting for the signal that everybody else could get in undetected."

Hermione took Harry's hand in hers. "Draco and I had to watch you be crucio'd. I thought he was going to go mad. And when you passed out… It was awful, Harry. Not just to see my best friend lying there and not be able to help you, but watching Malfoy fall apart."

Hermione looked down, swallowed, and looked back up at him. "Draco told me something that made a lot of sense. He said that reading about the patronus charm and casting it are two very different things. All the book knowledge will never prepare you for how it feels for your power to become an embodiment of your spirit, of seeing your patronus for the first time, or even to know that you have enough goodness and light within you to cast the spell. He said that I will never understand how it felt for you growing up at the Dursleys, and that the best thing I can do is accept it and be there if you need me."

Harry lamented, "How is it that he can be perfectly nice and reasonable with you, and a complete wanker to me?!"

She squeezed his hand. "I think he's scared, Harry. Why don't you talk to him about it, instead of me?"

# #

Harry showered and went in search of Draco. He found him sitting at the dining room table, picking at his food. His head jerked up when he saw Harry, grabbed his plate, and stood. "Draco, wait."

Draco's face was impassive, but he relented, sitting back down. "What do you want, Potter?"

Harry placed a small potions box on the table. The slytherin's eyes narrowed but he reached for it. Upon opening it, he found four vials. He pulled one out, setting it down. It was what Harry had taken yesterday morning. Harry pointed at it, "Lung clearing potion. Once a day for the next month."

Draco pulled another out and sniffed it. "Smells like skele-gro." He held the vial to the light and swished it around. "Too viscous. Must be bone strengthener."

"Taken at night for two weeks."

The last one was in a deep red bottle and Draco's hand shook a little as he pulled it out. "The only one with this bottle…"

"Lidliver's Heart tonic. Twice a day for six months." Harry stacked the bottles back into the box. "The deep scan revealed that I'm going to develop a weakening of my bones as I grow older. It also revealed that some of my organs were weakened by the malnutrition. It doesn't show on a normal scan yet, but if left untreated, I'll develop heart and breathing problems. Healer Vott says that because we've caught the issue now, there's time to turn it around."

Draco inhaled deeply and straightened. "I'd like it if you were more careful of your health and safety in the future."

Harry had to chuckle. "Hermione told you to say it that way, didn't she?"

"Maybe."

Harry sighed. "We had to get Macnair. He managed to get somebody into Azkaban. He hurt your father. I'm told he'll be fine, but they couldn't be sure that Lucius' location would remain secure. We also had an issue of public safety. If people learned that he managed to get into Azkaban AND had a plot to get into Gringotts? It would be chaos."

"From now on, tell me when you know that you're heading into a dangerous situation."

Harry thought it through. "Now that we're acknowledged soul mates, legally you could go to work with me and nobody could stop you. Since you always turn up anyway, I suppose it won't hurt. I don't always know, though. Sometimes trouble just happens."

"There are steps you could take to avoid it, but you don't."

Harry had to admit that was true. If he'd checked out old Mrs. Green's barn on the clock with Ron, he probably wouldn't have been kidnapped. A number of situations could have been avoided if he'd handled it differently. He still tended to rush in and think later. Harry looked at Draco. "You're right."

Grey eyes blinked. Harry wondered if Draco was in shock. He blinked again. "Yes, I am. I'm also right that you could have taken more precautions yesterday, as well."

"Like what?"

"Like the precautions Kingsley Shacklebolt wanted you to take, and you vetoed: disillusioned Aurors on the roofs and on brooms, and somebody polyjuiced as me in case you ran into a problem. Which you did, I might add. Actually calling me in, which happened anyway. Oh, and portkeying away with Macnair as soon as you were in contact."

"I thought they were all too risky."

"So you'd rather risk yourself than any other options?"

"If it's a choice between somebody else getting hurt and getting hurt myself, I'll probably choose me. Yeah. I admit that. In this case, catching Macnair was worth risking my safety."

Draco gazed at him; weighing and trying to understand. After long moments he spoke again, "You need to get it through that hard headed gryffindor skull that people would risk themselves for you. So when you go jumping in, they'll go jumping in after."

"Does that make you an honorary griff?"

Draco looked horrified. "Great Merlin, no! Take that back! My ancestors would roll in their graves."

"Would it help to know that the sorting hat wanted to place me in slytherin? It told me I could do great things."

"You already have. You became my bonded soul mate. You can't do better than that."

"Not even defeating a Dark Lord?"

"Well, there is that, I suppose. I guess that can be added to the list, but only under 'soul mate to Draco Lucius Malfoy'. Then it's defeating a Dark Lord. Lower down might be a few of your exploits at Hogwarts. Hermione has filled me in, by the way."

"Oh, it's Hermione now?"

"Considering that I've been stuck under a length of fabric with her twice now, we've gotten to know each other a bit better. She's an all right sort. I guess."

"You guess? The brightest witch of our generation and you guess?" Draco shrugged. Harry stole a piece of fruit off the slytherin's plate, and Draco pushed several more towards him.

Harry turned to him, "I'd like you to consider staying, when everybody leaves. You can stay in Regulus's room…your room. When we're comfortable, maybe my room can become 'our' room."

Draco smirked, just a little. "You could always come live at the manor. I'm sure that my father will adore you when he comes home."

Harry couldn't quite repress the shudder that ran through him. "I'd really rather not."

A warm arm draped itself over Harry's shoulders. "I agree. He'll approve of the bond politically, and he'll definitely see it as helping the Malfoy name. He wouldn't harm you in any way. It would look bad. He'd be friendly in public and stand by the match. Personally speaking, his philosophies are still purist. Mother will keep him in line, but I doubt he'll ever like you. It makes a lot of sense for us to stay here. I would like that."

They turned into each other as if they had planned it, and the kiss was nothing like Harry had experienced before. It felt right; like finding something that you never knew was missing, and now you couldn't live without it. He knew that their lives together would never be boring.

As they pulled away Draco murmured, "Perhaps we can dispense with separate bedrooms altogether."

~Fin


End file.
